Three crochet days before Valentine’s Day 2020, I got the bright idea to crochet a last minute yarn bomb meant to evoke the ever popular holiday candy, Sweethearts. I got the idea because I had some yellow yarn out that I should have put away, but didn’t.

Inspired by the clutter I had not put away, I instead, I got out graph paper and tried to figure out how to make a crochet yarn bomb that would look like the Necco candy holiday favorite, Sweetheart.

It isn’t a completely standard heart shape. It is more rounded in places than a typical heart, but it is definitely recognizable as a heart, and while a last minute yarn bomb is a little more ambitious than is reasonable, reasonable doesn’t always get you what you want, and in this case, I really wanted a new yarn bomb for my back fence.

This meant that even though I crocheted late into the night on Thursday and early in the morning on Friday, by late morning, there was still work to be done:

I thought about setting it aside and saving it for next year, but I also thought that was stupid idea, so despite the time-sensitive nature of the project that wasn’t coming together as quickly as I would like, I persisted.

One stitch here, another stitch, there. I ignored the clock and stayed focused like laser on my stitching, and eventually it was done.

I meant to get a picture of it before I put it on the fence, but it was mid-afternoon, and I really needed to get it up so at least someone might get to enjoy it:

And as it happened, a woman who goes past my fence every day on her walks was going by just as I finished putting it up. I learned that she keeps an eye out for my yarn bombs and has been disappointed that there aren’t more of them!

Delighted to learn that my yarn bombs have an audience that they reach, I went out the next day and celebrated with a macchiato and seltzer water:

As for next year, I will probably make a few small revisions to the design, but otherwise, I will move forward with next year’s yarn bomb the only way possible: one stitch at a time.